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This GirlQuake 'Fixer' series amplifies the voices of girls and women who are fixing the world's problems by disrupting the status quo.

About Lindy Li, Princeton Alumni Class President

Living in China, England, and three American cities all before the age of ten taught me resilience. It was at The Agnes Irwin School, an all-girls school on the Philadelphia Main Line, where I first embraced the belief that people can do anything that they set their minds to. At Princeton, I was Class President, wrote my thesis on the ethics of climate change legislation, and made some of my greatest friendships. Elected Alumni Class President upon graduation in 2012, I continue to lead my class today. Now I’m 22 and work for Merck in its Corporate Finance division, a position that exposes me to the fascinatingly complex U.S. healthcare system.

In April 2013 I was invited to attend a conference in Dublin with Vice President Al Gore, former Irish President Mary Robinson, American businessman Richard Blum, Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands, CEO of Unilever Paul Polman, and a few others. The discussions during and commitments made at the meeting, whose theme was the intersection of the private sector and climate justice, exemplify the deep compassion that our world leaders have for the underprivileged. Meeting and learning from them was a dream come true, and it is one that I want to share with others — my lifetime of work is just beginning.

Your actions matter. Small steps, though seemingly insignificant when measured singly, exert enormous force when measured together. Individuals can and do make an important impact everyday. If everyone assumes that someone else will make the sacrifices that society demands, then we would be in poor shape indeed. Lindy Li

The proverbial key to Princeton presented by the President of Princeton to Lindy Li, President of the alumni class. Photo Credit Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students, Princeton University

What do you think is one of the most important things in the world that needs to be fixed?

The problem of the 21st century is the problem of climate change. Nothing else will matter if our quality of life is so low that enjoying the pleasures of life becomes difficult. America can still provide the powerful leadership that our world so desperately needs, but in order to be at the helm, our country must regain its integrity through extensive campaign finance reform, which will allow us to pursue reasonable solutions to our problems, without the outsized influence of corporate interests. Politicians who are still stuck in an America that no longer exists need to confront reality and have the courage to live and fight for something bigger than self-preservation. We ourselves must pay attention and hold our leaders accountable — only then can we master our challenges and not the other way around.

What will it look like when it's fixed?

There is no quick fix to climate change, and we must be open to implementing a variety of ideas. Despite widespread environmental damage, there are still many places in the world today whose beauty simply takes our breath away. Let us preserve these treasures for ourselves, those we love, and posterity. The selfish "I’ll be gone, you’ll be gone" mentality should be no more.

What are you doing to help fix it?

Starting at Princeton, a group of friends and I will launch the Do It in the Dark Campaign at campuses throughout the United States, in an attempt to trigger cultural change and transform mentalities on a vast scale. Our overarching goal is to conspicuously link actions with consequences, nurture the belief that individuals and ordinary citizens can and do make a meaningful impact everyday, and encourage the students who are touched by our efforts to bring this philosophy with them wherever they go.

Seeking to be fun and appealing, the program is designed to incentivize college students to reduce their carbon footprint by rewarding the dorm that reduces its energy consumption the most. Harnessing the power of self-interest while also tapping into one’s sense of collective identity, this idea is simple and has been done before. My goal, however, is to institutionalize it, so it doesn’t graduate along with its progenitors.

"You are the ones you've been waiting for" and "we choose to do it in the dark...they do it in the dark because of our choices" are messages that define what we want our legacy to be: one of lifelong sustainability and climate justice. We want to help our students understand that although the world's most vulnerable will be affected disproportionately by the negligence of the developed world, no one will be spared, not even our own generation. All will feel the negative impacts of pollution and anthropogenic climate change.

Our advisory board consists of several Marshall and Rhodes scholars from schools across the country. This is not meant to be a Princeton or an Ivy League phenomenon but one that students everywhere can adopt as their own. Through Do It in the Dark, a spirit of friendly competition will grow not only at a particular school but also between schools, since the model that we propose is one that is easily replicable. Because measuring energy output is the only truly necessary capability, the barrier to entry is very low.

Success is achieved when the participants of the game “do it in the dark” not just for the prize that the program coordinators offer, but because doing so is now so intricately intertwined with their lives that it has become second nature. Even if climate change is not a severe problem — I am willing to entertain this notion only for argument’s sake — making these changes will bring no harm whatsoever. While nothing is lost, we recover the world: a sense of reasoned control over our actions. Money and resources that have hitherto been wasted on warming empty rooms or powering forgotten machines can now be funneled into more productive pursuits.

What can others do to help fix it?

This is an open invitation. I invite anyone who is interested in using gamification and behavior modification to spur positive transformation in his or her community to get in touch with me @lindyli. I would be delighted to get in touch with university representatives who are interested in launching similar initiatives. This has to expand beyond Princeton, for what our world needs is a mass transformation, a global changing of minds. Climate change is happening right now, so let’s do something about it. Turn off the lights when you leave the room. Pull out the plug. Take shorter showers. Shift your hand just a few inches over to deposit the paper in the recycling bin instead of the trashcan. I know your hands are wet, but you don’t need five paper towels to dry them (if I could insert a smile here, I would).

These simple acts make environmental as well as economic sense. That every college in the United States will one day live out the principles of sustainability is too humble a dream; many companies and institutions have already started to plan for a future propelled by renewable energy sources. Let's take the invisible hand that drives the markets and let it loose on our college campuses. Who doesn’t want to have some fun?

"Making the world a better place" is so hackneyed a phrase that I am loath to say it — my point is simply that doing so is not a zero-sum game, for we're all in this together. Just as environmental pollution is a negative externality, so its solution will render everyone's life more worth living.